When people got old, why did they always develop a passion for scrabbling in the earth? Were they trying to get used to it?

The common good and the individual good rarely coincide.

When leaders betray their people and the people don't overthrow them, it's not just the leaders who should be blamed.

You're a big boy, you ought to understand that punctual transport, public order and safe streets, polite people and good medical services are all the achievements of dictatorship.

Nobody can be forced to commit an act of villainy. You can't push anybody into the mud; people always step into it themselves.

Fairy tales lie just as much as statistics do, but sometimes you can find a grain of truth in them.

When there are strange things going on all around, every coincidence should be considered very carefully.

Drinking beer in a children's playground is an old Soviet tradition.

If you have love in you, it's a strength. But if you are in love, it's a weakness.

There is very much in the world that is bad. But usually the attempt to defeat evil engenders more evil. I advise you to do good; that is the only way to win the victory.

Love is happiness, but only when you believe it will last forever. Even though every time it turns out to be a lie, it’s only faith that gives love its strength and its joy.

You can't understand depth of science, unless you challenge the published scientific data.

A face can have a thousand wrinkles, but the soul have none.

One simple test of the claim that the pleasure in the world outweighs the pain…is to compare the feelings of an animal that is devouring another with those of the animal being devoured.

A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this - that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made - not to understand - but to feel - as crime.

In God's dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.

If there were a people consisting of gods, they would be governed democratically. So perfect a government is not suitable to men.

I want to be a compassionate soul, finding worth and beauty in the worlds around me and within me, attempting to sing a transcendent tune with my temporal position in this life.

People need each other and think it is love. There's no hanging on to, or fencing in, of the other one when one loves.

The loss of a child is the most terrifying place for me to go.

I must have loved you a lot.